The Jiji Line () is a

branch line A branch line is a phrase used in railway terminology to denote a secondary railway line which branches off a more important through route, usually a main line. A very short branch line may be called a spur line. Industrial spur An industr ...

of the

Taiwan Railways Administration Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) is a railway operator in Taiwan. It is an agency of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, responsible for managing, maintaining, and running conventional passenger and freight railway services ...

, located in

Changhua Changhua ( Hokkien POJ: ''Chiong-hòa'' or ''Chiang-hòa''), officially known as Changhua City, is a county-administered city and the county seat of Changhua County in Taiwan Province of the Republic of China. For many centuries the site was ...

and Nantou Counties in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...

. The length of the line is 29.7 km.

History

The line was originally built by

Taipower The Taiwan Power Company (, Taipower; ) is a state-owned electric power industry providing electricity to Taiwan and off-shore islands of the Republic of China. History Taipower was established on 1 May 1946. Its origins can be traced to 1919 ...

in 1922 to facilitate the construction of Mingtan Pumped Storage Hydro Power Plant in

Sun Moon Lake Sun Moon Lake (; Thao: ''Zintun'') is a lake in Yuchi Township, Nantou County, Taiwan. It is the largest body of water in Taiwan. The area around the lake is home to the Thao tribe, one of aboriginal tribes of Taiwan. Sun Moon Lake surrou ...

. Afterwards, the colony government purchased the route in 1927. The line was severely damaged in the

1999 Chi-Chi earthquake The Chi-Chi earthquake (later also known as the Jiji earthquake) (), also known as the great earthquake of September 21 (), was a 7.3 ML or 7.7 Mw earthquake which occurred in Jiji (Chi-Chi), Nantou County, Taiwan on Tuesday, 21 ...

on 21 September 1999, but was repaired and resumed operations in February 2002. In March 2010 service on the line was suspended in order for work to be performed on seven railway tunnels between Zhuoshui Station and Checheng Station. The maintenance repaired damage that the tunnels had sustained during the 1999 earthquake and expanded the tunnels' width. The line reopened on July 9, 2011.

Operation

On Jiji Line, there are twelve runs daily in each direction, with seven eastbound runs starting at Ershui Station and ending at Checheng Station, while two eastbound runs begin at Tianzhong Station, with one eastbound run daily between Yuanlin Station and Checheng Station. There is also one round trip per day between

Changhua Station Changhua () is a railway station in Changhua City, Changhua County, Taiwan served by Taiwan Railways. It is located at the southern junction of the Taichung line and Coastal line, where the line continues onto the southern section of the West ...

and Checheng Station, however, these depart very early in the morning and very late at night. Westbound there are eight Checheng-Ershui runs, three Checheng-Tianzhong runs, and one run between Shuili Station and

. The

headway Headway is the distance or duration between vehicles in a transit system measured in space or time. The ''minimum headway'' is the shortest such distance or time achievable by a system without a reduction in the speed of vehicles. The precise defi ...

between each run is about two hours. Due to the line being single tracked, only two trains can travel the full length at a time, with the two meeting at Zhuoshui Station. Historically, only the TRA's DRC1000 trains could operate on the line due to the width of the line's tunnels. Following the renovations from 2010 to 2011, the Jiji Line became navigable to other types of trains.

Stations and fares

Stations

File:Jiji, Jiji Township, Nantou County, Taiwan 552 - panoramio (7).jpg,

Jiji railway station Jiji () is a railway station on the Taiwan Railways Administration Jiji line located in Jiji Township, Nantou County, Taiwan. History The station was opened for operation on 14 January 1922 during Japanese rule which was mostly used for tr ...

File:TRA Checheng Station.JPG,

Checheng railway station Checheng () is a railway station on the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) Jiji line located in Shuili Township, Nantou County, Taiwan. History The station was originally established on 14 January 1922 as Waichecheng Station (). It was t ...

Fares

A one-way ticket fare, from Ershui to Checheng, is NT$44 by mileage for adults. And, an unlimited-rides pass fare is NT$80, for used in one day. The Jiji Line ticket and one-day round-trip pass is available for purchase at all the following TRA stations: Zhunan, Miaoli,

Fengyuan Fengyuan District () is a district located in north-central Taichung, Taiwan on the south bank of the Dajia River. Fengyuan district is the third most populated district among former Taichung County, ranking after Dali and Taiping district. Fen ...

Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of T ...

, Yuanlin,

Tianzhong Tianzhong Township is an urban township located at eastern Changhua County, Taiwan. Its former name () and current name () make reference to the origin of the town in the center of rice paddies. Geography Tianzhong encompasses with a populat ...

Ershui Ershui Township () is a rural township in southeastern Changhua County, Taiwan. Geography Ershui is bordered on the north by Tianzhong Township, to the east by Mingjian Township in Nantou County, and to the west by Xizhou Township. Its name ...

, Dajia, Shalu,

Douliu Douliu ( Hokkien POJ: ''Táu-la̍k'') is a county-administered city and the county seat of Yunlin County, Taiwan. It is also the political and economic center of the county. Douliu City is served by National Highway No. 3. Name Its former nam ...

, Dounan, and

Chiayi Chiayi (, Taigi POJ: ''Ka-gī''; ), officially known as Chiayi City, is a city located in the plains of southwestern Taiwan. Formerly called ''Kagee'' during the late Qing dynasty and ''Kagi'' during the Japanese era (), its historical name ...

. Using the MRT calculation, the fare will be NT$55 in the future, and will support

Easycard The EasyCard is a contactless smartcard system operated by the EasyCard Corporation, which was previously named the "Taipei Smart Card Corporation", for payment on the Taipei Metro (also known as "''Taipei MRT''", or "Taipei Rapid Transit Sys ...

References